MSI K9A3 CF RD780 also tips up

Not only did Coolaler score some pics of what should be close to the final version of the K9A2 Platinum from MSI, but they also scored some pictures of the K9A3 CF RD780 based board.

This is a much simpler and more affordable board with a dual x16 slot design, altough with two cards slotted in each slot only has x8 bandwidth. The RD780 is a cost down version of the RD790 chipset and as such has less PCI Express lanes.

We're not to keen on this design from MSI, as the board only has an additional x1 PCI Express slot and two PCI slots for expansion. The gap between the first PCI Express slot is nice, but it seems to us like there's another slot missing.

It features passive cooling, a single eSATA, four SATA, 7.1-channel audio and a very odd I/O layout around the back. MSI is using a simple four phase power design as well, which isn't ideal for overclockers.